


Worry Not, Sunshine

by PettyMermaidsGf



Category: Siren (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Established Relationship, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, F/M, Multi, Polyamory, Polymarine, also it isn't all that Mature™️ but it does have a fair bit of sexy times references, i'd meant for this to be short af and then...this happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-25 23:08:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20379646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PettyMermaidsGf/pseuds/PettyMermaidsGf
Summary: Ryn comes back home safe after long weeks away in the water, but Maddie worries there's a coming storm on the horizon. What happens if Ian takes that video of Ryn's transformation public?Will people believe him? And will it put Ryn's life, and her entire species lives' in jeopardy? Or could it all go differently? A confrontation at the local Halloween festival will confront all of Maddie's fears...





	Worry Not, Sunshine

**Author's Note:**

> Or the one where my OT3 is hopelessly in love and lowkey horny, Ben isn't a dumbass alpha male all the time, Maddie worries a lot and her lovers help take her mind off it ;), and Ian's obsession with finding Ryn and gaining ~proof!~ to further his career just lands him some good old jail time, oops.
> 
> Also, everyone is alive and v gay (though the jury's still out on Elaine, Ted is a confirmed hetero)

* * *

At first, the Scooby Gang’s terrified that footage of Ryn mid-mermaid-transformation is going to go viral. That it’ll spread like wildfire from Twitter to Instagram to Facebook, and hell, even Pinterest; that everyone from reporters to soccer moms will talk nonstop about the real-live mermaid in town, that tourists will come barreling on through the streets for a look at their fierce and beautiful siren.

For a while there, Helen even shutters the blinds to her shop and only sells trinkets, jewelry, and the usual knickknacks to locals she can trust. They can’t risk Ryn’s discovery - balancing the secret between the six of them is enough of a challenge as is, keeping stories straight and lies smooth as can be. And it’s exhausting. So as far as anyone else knows? Helen’s Antiques had gone out of business as the seasons changed and tourists grew few and far between.

The colder months bring a chill to the air and the water, and Maddie looks out to the sea with a thick wool cardigan hanging from her shoulders as she waits for Ryn to return home. Home - that’s what she’d called Bristol Cove the last time she’d spoke before diving into the deep, still waters.

More importantly, that’s what she’d called her place with Ben and Maddie; home.

But Mads worries even still that something terrible is looming on the horizon, even as Ryn kisses her hello and slides freezing arms around her in a wet embrace. She’s home. Her girl is home.

Later that night, after a long, languid few hours making love and talking, laughing, and then making love again, Ryn looks to Maddie with big, knowing eyes and whispers, “Maddie is…afraid.”

And Maddie bows her head and looks towards the dark sea beyond their window when she murmurs, “I just…I keep thinking about that video Ian’s got. It’s worse than the one Nicole has.”

The thought of a military operative seeing the most private, intimate moments between the three of them still makes her blood boil. She isn’t sure if Ben senses it from the set of her jaw or the sharp intake of her breath, but he rests a gentle hand on her arm and soothes, “I know, Mads. But it’s gonna be okay, it has to be.”

Maddie shakes her head and leans against Ryn’s waiting shoulder when she whispers, “But what if it isn’t?”

Ryn nuzzles her hair and breathes in the smell of her, honey and lavender and sunlight and warmth, safety, as she worries, “What if something gets out, like if…like what if he goes on TV and people actually believe the shit he says?”

Ben shudders at the thought and says it reminds him of the president, except this time it’d be true. Ryn hisses at the title and he and Maddie share a smile above her head - they’ve taught their girl well over the past few months, it would seem. Very well.

“Really though guys, I’m _worried_.” They can hear it in her voice, high-strung and taut like a rubber band about to snap. Now it’s Ben’s turn to share a smile with Ryn as they turn towards Maddie as one, with Ben murmuring, “Y’know babe, I think we can help with that.”

And Ryn nods along as she agrees, “Yes, we help Maddie with love. Lots and lots of love.”

They spend the rest of the evening taking Maddie’s mind off her worries and try to surround her with love - the physical, sweaty, loud, mind-numbing kind of love they make sometimes just to drown out the noise, the worry, the fear, and the softer, gentler kind of love they show her later, with slow touches and kisses and feeding her stupid-expensive chocolate while a long-forgotten movie plays in the background.

She almost forgets for a while. 

* * *

Weeks pass and there’s still no news. Dale hugs her hard one weekend before their Sunday coffee date and says that _no news is good news, sunshine_, but she’s not so sure. Her mom hovers in the background and smiles at Dale, then murmurs something about doing laundry downtown or picking up a few things in Forks for their next date night.

Oh, gross. Maddie scrunches up her nose at the prospect but says nothing, just takes a long sip of her coffee and then once she's gone, asks, totally deadpan, “We got any Bailey’s?”

Her dad gives a raucous laugh and slaps his hand on the table. “Madelyn Elizabeth Bishop!” The use of her full name would be more concerning if he wasn’t still laughing through the whole thing. “I’m starting to think that boy of yours is bad news.”

“I’m pretty sure his parents think the same of me, actually.”

Dale takes his chin in her hand and declares in that measured, earnest voice of his, “Then sweetheart, they don’t know what they’re missing.”

Her sour mood doesn’t linger long in her dad’s company, and they spend hours catching up and laughing, laughing, laughing, the way they haven’t in years. "You remember that time you were five and insisted you _needed_ the dinosaur stuffed animal at Disney World because it was so cute?"

"Oh my God, Dad, not that story again-" But she's already cracking up.

Undaunted, he takes a sip of his coffee and then says around a smile, "You hissed at anyone who tried taking it away from you."

Yup, spending time with him is exactly what she needed today.

* * *

Down at the military research center, they do a second round of MRI and CT scans on her and Ben the following day, just to check and make sure the healing song is still holding up okay. Nicole’s still wary about letting the three of them pilot any of her underwater research ships again after the last debacle, and Maddie smiles in her face and tells her to piss off.

The shocked look on Nicole’s face is more than worth it. She looks to Ben and asks, “Is that…is that the effects of the song?”

Ryn and Ben give twin shrugs in answer, their unbothered expressions total mirrors of each other. It makes it even harder for Maddie not to burst out laughing when they say in unison, “Nah, don’t think so.”

“It bother you?” Maddie asks, ready to be done with this conversation and Nicole all together. “Then find another research subject, she’s not your pet. She's her own fucking person.”

Nicole growls and stalks off, probably to whine to Commander Kyle or brainwash an innocent townie or whatever it is she does these days.

Once she’s gone, her lovers turn to her with pride and something like _hunger_ burning low in their gazes. Ryn nears her first, can’t keep her hands off her when she proclaims, “Maddie is fierce…like hunter.”

She runs warm fingers over her neck, along her jaw, her collarbone, her touch leaving a trail of fire in its wake. But Ben’s the one who wraps his arms around her from behind and mouths kisses along her shoulder, murmuring, “And it’s so fucking hot too, not even _fair_.”

That’s what they get for teasing her into oblivion the night before, dammit.

* * *

Another week passes and brings leaves scattering to the earth and local children chattering away about Halloween. Helen brings out an old witch’s costume from the attic and a spell-book she says she made herself, but she says it around one of those wry smiles Maddie’s learning smooths over bits and pieces of truth.

Then she smiles for real when Sarge asks her, “What is…Halloween?” and Maddie has to look away at the amount of real, genuine affection Helen’s gaze holds as she explains the long-standing, mystic holiday to her mermaid lover.

It would seem things are back to normal. Or at least, as normal as they can be around here when a bunch of bloody-thirsty, terrifying mermaids have invaded town and seem pretty hellbent on staying. Levi’s started working at the bar, Katrina and Eliza wait tables and hiss at catcallers, Donna's slowly but surely starting to trust them all, and Ryn’s trying to learn how to ride a bike. _Try_ being the operative word, as she keeps hissing and snarling when she falls off and scraps herself up on the ground.

They’ve gone through four bikes and counting now because she keeps wrenching the seat clean off in a rage or crunching the whole thing up in a fit like it’s fucking paper-mache.

But their newfound, curious and rather terrifying friends are safe now, for the most part. The military’s still got them all under a close watch, but the trio took a bat to every camera they’d found in the houseboat a month before while laughing and singing along to Hozier. It was very cathartic. They haven’t found any new ones since.

And in other happenings, Elaine’s taken up the piano, Ted’s trying to convince her to go running with him, and Xander and Calvin are booking Chris a one-way flight to Amsterdam in a couple days.

As the October days crawl on by, it seems like she’d worried herself sick for nothing. (And she really had worried herself sick, throwing up so suddenly and violently one morning that Ben had started to think maybe she was pregnant. The thought made her puke all over again.)

The marine center’s doing well, the bar’s making good money, and Xander and Calvin are supposed to be going on a date next week. As in, together. The idea had been surprising to absolutely no one except maybe themselves, and Janine seems to be pretty okay with it. Maybe there's something to be said about that, about the shared looks between the three of them, but she doesn't question it. And after all, how can she?

Ryn returns to the water the day before Halloween, but she makes a special guest appearance for Jerry’s Haunted House event at the local festival. Passerby ooh and aah and children squeal and scream at her elaborate costume makeup - Janine had made good on her promise and exaggerated Ryn’s facial features to truly make her look out of this world, as ethereal and strange as she was terrifying.

The effect should probably have Maddie sprinting in the other direction, but really? It just makes her fall a little more in love with her.

Ben, too, judging by the way he’s stopped to stare at their girl as she lounges in a kiddie-pool filled with salt water in front of the haunted house. A timed spray bottle mists her with ocean water to keep her from going through a half-transformation. Inside the house, the screams of frightened children ripple through the night over the sound of Jerry's "spooky" Spotify playlist.

“God, she's so beautiful.”

Maddie rests her head against his shoulder and murmurs, “And so ours, we’re so lucky.”

Ben smiles down at her and presses a lingering kiss to her lips just this side of publicly-decent before he pulls away and corrects, “Mm, I really am.”

So, of course, it’s at that precise moment that some randomer interrupts and yells, “I knew it! I knew mermaids were real!” as he bursts out of the crowd and runs towards Ryn, hostility clear in his every move. 

“Oh, the fuck no you don’t!” Maddie cries as she and Ben move to step in front of Ryn and her splashing tail. Honestly, what even gives him the right? Making a big-ass scene and ruining the atmosphere for everyone like he’s nothing better to do?

Her annoyance turns to pure rage when she realizes just who the guy is. He isn’t random at all, because it’s fucking Ian Sutton from KGTV News, looking wild and frantic with unkept hair, huge, blown eyes, and deep purple circles lining the hollows of his under-eyes. Jesus, _of course_, he has nothing better to do.

“It’s her, I knew it,” He says on a shaky breath like he’d run the whole way here. Or like he’s a little high on something.

Ryn lets out a near-inaudible distress call to her pod and within moments, a number of them abandon their carnival games, funnel cake, and cold drinks to appear en masse around them. They link arms with Ben and Maddie to properly guard Ryn, the lot of them crowding Ian’s space and forcing him to take several steps back, away from Ryn. It's more or less how Mads finds Katrina on one side of her and Eliza at Ben’s side, and she can smell Levi’s horrible Hollister cologne from here. There are others too, new arrivals and land-dwellers and nameless, bright-eyed hybrids all standing at the ready to defend their mermaid leader.

“Now if I could just-” Ian makes a move to reach for Ryn anyway and Katrina snarls at him, with Eliza growling just under her breath. It’s a warning, a show that they’ll fight him if they have to. For his sake, she hopes they don't have to. Because he'd be leaving in a body bag or damn near close to it, that's for sure.

Maddie had been afraid of this moment before - afraid of him coming out with the whole secret in front of a crowd like this, afraid of putting Ryn’s life and her entire species lives’ in danger. But now? Now she just openly laughs in his face as he pulls out his phone and exclaims, “I’ve got proof, I can show you!” under the dizzying lights of the ferris wheel.

This time, it’s Eliza who lunges for him and snaps at his hand when he tries to make a move towards Ryn. She doesn’t make much impact, but does enough damage to draw a few licks of blood. Ian looks to his hand, scraped red and raw from her teeth, and yells, enraged, “Oh, you crazy _bitch_!”

Were this a few months ago, Maddie’s twelve thousand percent sure that the remark would’ve been enough to send the redhead and her lover into a feeding frenzy. But now Katrina and Eliza simply look to Ryn for guidance and she shakes her head, no.

“Not worth it. We no fight.”

Passerby are slowing down to watch the scene, and a number of women have their phones out as if to call the cops (really, call her _dad_) if shit turns ugly fast. Because they don’t know Ian, and this whole scene looks bad - it looks _really_ bad. A strung-out guy approaching her and her friends and verbally harassing them over, what, a harmless costume? Before physically trying to lunge at them until someone holds him back and bodily restrains him?

Yeah, it definitely looks bad.

But the crowd's on their side, sneering at Ian and defending Maddie, with one guy calling out, “Really, man, on Halloween?” with his friend laughing and taunting, “Proof of what? That you’re high as fuck all?! Get outta here dude, go home!”

More and more voices blend over theirs, asking him why he's doing this or what he hopes to prove. An older woman, grandmotherly-age, just looks at him point-blank and tells him to knock it off, he's scaring the children. For once, Maddie would have to agree with the "what-about-the-children?" question.

“But I can prove it! It’s all true! She’s- she’s a mermaid and I know it!” Ian exclaims as he points frantically to Ryn, trying to get them all to see reason. To understand. “She _changes_ in the water, she’s got crazy huge eyes and her legs bleed before fusing into a tail!"

It's no use - the crowd doesn't listen to him, doesn't believe him, and she'd think it was impossible too if she hadn't seen it herself.

He tries to part the human chain around Ryn but to no avail - Levi gives him a gentle push back and it knocks him to the ground. The man doesn’t know his own strength and Maddie’s almost grateful for it now. "And those three - they're together too!" He jabs an accusing finger at Ben, Maddie and Ryn. "Like _together_, together!" 

And that scares her too - not that people know or would even judge her, but that they'd bully _Ryn_ for it. That their harsh glares or scornful whispers would make her distrustful of humans again, that the once-accepting townies would turn their backs on her and shun her just like they did Maddie all those years ago, when Susan had started drinking...

But now, a girl about Mads' age just rolls her eyes and says, "Oh, so what? It's none of your business anyway!"

_Oh, thank God._

Out of options now, Ian starts playing the awful video from his spot in the dead grass and dirt and yells, “Just listen to me!” with a frantic edge to his voice, but the audio’s drown out by the noise of the crowd.

Thankfully, Levi has enough sense to try diffusing the situation with a little siren-song magic in his voice this time. The barely audible hum beneath his words seems to work, more or less, and lulls the crowd somewhat. By this point, the sheriff’s department has shown up and Marissa happily drags Ian away into the waiting patrol car. Dale just kisses the top of Maddie’s head when she comes rushing over and hugs him, saying, “See, Mads? I told you they wouldn’t believe him.”

Ian is still ranting and raving about the mermaids and the government and Klesco oil by the time they shut the door behind him. And if it hits him on the foot first? Well, Marissa just shrugs a shoulder and doesn’t say a word about it.

**Author's Note:**

> I got through writing half a chapter for my next FinnPoe update, ran out of steam, and then jumped right back into my lowkey Siren love-affair. This was meant to be a two-second, rly short fic to get back into the writing groove but then it spiraled into this...fever-dream nonsense of smut and polymarine softness after I watched the season finale.
> 
> I'm not even sorry.


End file.
